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Friday, April 15, 2016

Tails From Rainbow Bridge: What you Say and what we Hear

Researchers
have discovered ten words that are used most frequently when dog and
humans play together. Humans say the words but what humans mean to say
and what dogs hear are different.
When humans say “you” they mean
the dog to whom they are speaking. When dogs hear the word “you” they
know the humans mean them, and it is the most wonderful word. The
human’s attention is on us! We are the most important being in the
world to them. “You” means love.

When humans say “good” they are
telling us that we have done the right thing. The word “good” to us
means that we have reached our goal. We have been “good.” We want
nothing more than to be good. When they tell us we are good, it is
confirmation that our life is complete.

Humans use the word “it.”
“Leave it.” “Fetch it.” “Bring it.” It is the lone bark of words.
When we let out a lone bark humans don’t know what we mean, just like
when humans make the guttural sound “it” we don’t know what they mean.
What is it?

We do understand “get” but that word does not have any
power on its own. We only care about what “get” modifies. “Get the
kibble,” affect us greatly. “Get down” means nothing to us.

The
researchers name “go” and “gonna” as the same word. Nothing could be
further from the truth. “Gonna” means something in the future. “We are
gonna go for a walk.” We aren’t interested in false promises. “Let’s
go for a walk!” Now you have our attention. We’re not interested in
what you’re gonna do. We live in the now.

We agree what “come”
means but not all “comes” are alike. There is the “come” and let’s have
fun. And then there is the “come” in the house and stop having fun.
We don’t like that “come.” Humans weigh all come equally, but dogs know
the difference.

The next most popular word is “girl.” Of
course, it is. I am a girl, and I can tell you that girls are much more
popular than boys. Nothing wrong with boys but people say “good girl”
much more than “good boy” because girls are better. In fact, the word
“boy’ is ranked higher because of the number of people who say “oh boy I
wish you were a girl.”

Rounding out the top ten are the words
“yay” and “that.” I don’t know how that comes into play talk except
for “yay you got that!” which is kind of lame. All I can figure is
that “yay” and “that” are popular safe words with parents.

Next
year I hope “treat,” “chicken,” and “hamburger” are on the list. Humans
need to say “If you get this stick I will get you chicken or hamburger
for a treat more often.”

Tails From Rainbow Bridge

About Me

This page was founded in 2007 by Foley Monster. She was joined by her sister Pocket Dog. In 2013 Foley took a job as a Judge at Rainbow Bridge where she continues to blog. The newest family member, River Song joined us a short time later